I don’t work out

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body
thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO-HOO what a ride!”
~Unknown

I don’t work out. I do exercise. I walk and bike frequently. But I refuse to work out for working out’s sake. It’s like a diet. You diet, meet your goal, and then the diet’s done and you go right back to the way things were. Bullshit. Working out and dieting don’t seem like very sustainable activities to me.

I prefer to make changes that will stick around. I don’t do something just for the sake of doing it because I should. I do it because I like it.

It’s too tempting for me to read all those articles on living to be a hundred and how to eat healthy and all that jazz and I start thinking I should do things. Things that aren’t necessarily something I do now. And some of them are good ideas. I should eat more fish and less red meat. But I should be incorporating these things in such a way that they’re not just a fad diet.

I’m not going to micromanage how I live, though. I’m not going to sit down and count my calories or my veggies or the number of miles I walk in a week. Fuck that. Too much stress, which can be worse for you than most anything else.

I just live. I do try to make good decisions. But I do what I enjoy. I’m not going to martyr myself for the sake of hanging on to some semblance of youth at some completely bizarre age. I’m not going to freak out because I had a burger and fries with some friends. That’s the same reasoning that would make me quit hiking because I could’ve been bit by that rattlesnake* this weekend. I’ll get bit one day, (I’ll be damned surprised if I don’t), and I’ll burn that bridge when I get there. Life’s too short to be miserable. It’s also much too short to not take chances.

*No shit, I literally walked past its head with less than six inches between it and my feet. If you’re not jacking with them, snakes are incredibly tolerant creatures. Water moccasins are supposed to be aggressive as all hell, but I’ve walked up on more than a dozen and not once have they gone beyond a threat display. Granted, the threat displays work very well on me. The moment the tail starts shaking or the mouth starts gaping, I’m gone. I’ll get bit one day, but not because I failed to heed a threat display.

3 Responses to “I don’t work out”

As for working out, my father and I used to lift weights for awhile. It can actually be kind of fun, but like you said, if I weren’t enjoying it I wouldn’t do it. I also used to run, might get back into it, but running is also something I enjoy. Working out because “you should” seems like a chore.

For me, it’s natural exercising that’s unsustainable. I live in the country (well, severe suburbs.) It’s almost ten miles to the nearest store, and that’s a rinky dink place with vastly inflated prices. I’m not going to walk there for food, partially because the only route there is a two-lane road with no shoulders and a 60 mph speed limit, and partially because then i’d have to walk (or bicycle) back carrying food. Like you, I live in Texas. You know what the heat’s like here.

There’s nowhere to walk to. There’s no exercise that isn’t artificial. Working out is a far more sustainable activity than exercise in the natural course of life, and I suspect that’s true of a lot of people who live in the suburbs.

I’m a big walker. I used to walk even when there was no place to walk to. I still do walk up and down the road for the sheer hell of it. It’s something that’s really a part of my life. So in that sense, I can see working out.

And yes, it’s hotter than hell here. I spent this past weekend in Del Rio, and let me tell you internets. The desert is a hot bitch. And since Del Rio is right on the Amistad Reservoir, it’s not even a dry heat anymore. Ugh.